FOX NHL Saturday
FOX NHL Sunday is a television program that televised National Hockey League games on Fox and produced by Fox Sports. The program ran from the 1994–1995 NHL season until the 1998–1999 NHL season. Fox paid $31 million a year to televise the NHL. History On the heels of its surprise acquisition of the television rights to the National Football League in December 1993, Fox sought deals with other major sports leagues to expand its newly created sports division, opting to go after the rights to broadcast NHL games. CBS, which had just lost its NFL package (which primarily included the rights to regular season and playoff games from NFC) to Fox, was the network's primary competitor for the NHL package, hoping to replace some of the sports programming it had lost to the upstart network. Nevertheless, in a serious blow to the elder network, Fox outbid CBS for the NHL package as well. On September 9, 1994, NHL reached a 5 year contract with Fox for the broadcast television rights to the league's games, beginning with the 1994–95 season. The network paid $155 million ($31 million annually) to televise NHL regular season and postseason games, considerably less than the $1.58 billion it paid for NFL television rights. NHL's initial deal with Fox was significant, as a network television contract in the United States was long thought unattainable during the presidency of John Ziegler. For 17 years after 1975 Finals was broadcast on NBC, there would be no national over-the-air network coverage of NHL in United States (with the exception of CBS' coverage of Game 2 of 1979 Challenge Cup and Game 6 of 1980 Stanley Cup Finals, and NBC's coverage of NHL All-Star Game from 1990 to 1994) and only spotty coverage on regional networks. This was due to the fact that no network was willing to commit to carrying a large number of games, in turn, providing low ratings for NHL telecasts. ABC eventually resumed broadcasting regular NHL games (on a time buy basis through ESPN) for the 1992–93 season (and continuing through the 1993–94 season, before Fox took over for the next 5 seasons). Fox inaugurated its NHL coverage on April 2, 1995, towards the end of the 1994–95 regular season, with 6 games (between New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers; St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings; Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals; Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars; Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning; and San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks). Mike Emrick and John Davidson served as the lead broadcast team for national game broadcasts on FOX; Joe Micheletti served as the rinkside reporter for national game broadcasts on FOX, while regionally distributed games were handled by a variety of announcers in addition to Emrick and Davidson. For the first 4 years of the deal, James Brown and Dave Maloney hosted the show from the Fox studio in Los Angeles. For the 5th final season, it was Suzy Kolber and Terry Crisp. Occasionally, active NHL players such as Mike Modano would serve as guest analysts. FoxTrax FoxTrax (colloquially called the glow puck, smart puck, or super puck) was a specialized ice hockey puck with internal electronics that allow its position to be tracked that was designed for NHL telecasts on Fox. Primarily, it was used to visually highlight the puck on-screen and display a trail when the puck was moving rapidly. Stanley Cup playoff coverage During the first two rounds of the playoffs, at least two games were aired each round and at least two games were distributed regionally, unless other series involving other scheduled games were already finished, in which case the telecast was broadcast nationally. Canadian viewers were upset over the apparent preference that the NHL had for Fox ahead of CBC Television in regards to the scheduling of playoff games; Montreal Gazette sports journalist Pat Hickey wrote that the schedule was "just another example of how the N.H.L. snubs its nose at the country that invented hockey and its fans.". All-Star Game, Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals For the All-Star Game, Conference Finals, and Stanley Cup Finals, these (which were national games) were hosted from the arena. The 1996 and 1997 All-Star Games were televised in prime time. Stanley Cup Finals FOX split coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals with ESPN. Game 1 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals was the first Finals game shown on network television since 1980 and the first in prime time since 1973. FOX was usually scheduled to air Games 1, 5, and 7; ESPN airs Games 2, 3, 4, and 6 . However from 1995 -1998, the Finals were all 4 game sweeps; 1999 Finals ended in 6 games. The consequence was that - except for 1995, when FOX did televise Game 4 - the decisive game was never on network television. Perhaps in recognition of this, Games 3–7 were always televised by ABC Sports in the succeeding broadcast agreement between the NHL and ABC Sports/ESPN. Game 4 of the 1995 Final was notable because not only did the New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup, but also their main television play-by-play announcer, Mike Emrick announced it. Coverage overview Regular season Fox televised between 2 and 11 regionally distributed games on Sunday afternoons during the regular season, where anywhere from 2 to 6 games ran concurrently. All times below are Eastern 1994–95 Main Article: ''1994–95 NHL season 1995–96 ''Main Article: '1995–96 NHL season'' Notes * Denotes use of '''FoxTrax puck. 1996–97 Main Article: '1996–97 NHL season'' 1997–98 Main Article: '1997–98 NHL season'' 1998–99 Main Article: '1998–99 NHL season'' 1995 Main Article: '1995 Stanley Cup Playoffs'' Notes * The May 14 game in Quebec City was the final home game ever for the Quebec Nordiques. The team would become the Colorado Avalanche in the fall of 1995. * The June 24 game in New Jersey was the Stanley Cup Finals' deciding game as the New Jersey Devils swept the Detroit Red Wings. Although FOX did retain rights to certain other games where the Cup could be decided (including any and all Game 7s), 1995 was the only time during its run as NHL broadcaster that FOX carried the Cup-clinching victory on-air. 1996 Main Article: '1996 Stanley Cup Playoffs'' Notes * Denotes use of '''FoxTrax puck. * The April 28 game in Winnipeg was the final home game for the original Winnipeg Jets. The franchise would become the Phoenix Coyotes in the fall of 1996. 1997 Main Article: '1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs'' 1998 Main Article: '1998 Stanley Cup Playoffs'' 1999 Main Article: '1999 Stanley Cup Playoffs'' Personalities Commentator Crews * '''Mike Emrick-'John Davidson' * Sam Rosen-Joe Micheletti * Kenny Albert-Gary Green/Mickey Redmond/Denis Potvin/Craig Simpson/Terry Crisp/Peter McNab * Jiggs McDonald-Greg Millen/Peter McNab * Dick Stockton-Mike Eruzione * Bob Miller-Gary Green * Dave Strader-Denis Potvin/Greg Millen * Pat Foley-Mickey Redmond * Rick Jeanneret-Mickey Redmond * John Kelly-Craig Simpson * Josh Lewin-Daryl Reaugh Studio commentators * James Brown: Studio host (1994–1998) * Terry Crisp: Studio analyst (1998–1999) * Suzy Kolber: Studio host (1998–1999) * Dave Maloney: Studio analyst (1994–1998) Ratings Stanley Cup Finals Regular season All-Star Game Category:Media